Curriculum

Rationale for International Studies Focus

After September 11, 2001, schools urgently sought materials about central Asia and Islam. Years before, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, classrooms everywhere intensified their focus on Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. But such attention to other parts of the world is usually short-lived in America’s classrooms. Once the crisis is over, schools revert to business as usual. But the plain fact is that our high school graduates know far too little about the world outside our borders. If we continue to neglect this international knowledge gap, a whole generation of children will be ill prepared to work and act as informed citizens in the 21st century.

Our youth are dangerously uninformed about international matters according to a report released in 2001 by the National Commission on Asia in the Schools chaired by the former Gov. James B. Hunt Jr. of North Carolina, former Chancellor Chang-Lin Tien of the University of California, Berkeley, and Charlotte Mason, a Newton, Mass teacher. Research conducted for the report found that:

Level of knowledge was rudimentary. For example, 25% of college-bound high school students did not know the name of the ocean that separates the United States from Asia.

80% did not know that India is the world’s largest democracy.
Language instruction did not reflect today’s realities. For example, while more than a million students in US schools studied French, a language spoken by 80 million people worldwide, fewer than 40,000 studied Chinese, a language spoken by almost 1.3 billion people

One year later, in 2002, the National Geographic/Roper Survey of knowledge of geography and current affairs among young adults in 9 countries showed that US students lagged behind their peers in other countries. The great majority- 83%- cannot find Afghanistan or Israel on a world map. Compared with young adult from other nations, American youths hold an inflated idea of America: Nearly 1/3 estimated that the US population is at a billion or more. There is no shortage of evidence about the paucity of the young American’s knowledge of the world. But schools already have a great deal on their plates. We must continue to improve performance in reading, math, and science, as well as give students a solid grounding in American history and democratic institutions. But let us recognize that in the 21st century, knowledge of the world is no longer a luxury; it is a necessity.